Big changes in Saturday’s Giants lineup — if they play

Giants Manager Bruce Bochy made some sweeping changes in today’s lineup. How does Pablo Sandoval hitting eighth grab you? Aubrey Huff’s first start in right field? Pat Burrell in left field and making his Giants debut?

Some of you will be glad to see Aaron Rowand is off. You also might not like the sight of Bengie Molina hitting cleanup again.

But the biggest bullet point is Sandoval, who’d been hitting 3 or 4 all season. The Panda has grounded into 14 double plays, which leads the NL.

This is all predicated on actually playing a game, by the way. It’s dark and stormy now in the ‘Burgh but there’s a window in the 8-10 p.m. range. Also, the Pirates have a sellout with postgame fireworks and a Collective Soul concert. So they’ll make ’em wear it like Lieutenant Dan on the spar of a shrimpin’ boat to get this one in.

Andrew Baggarly

Andrew Baggarly has documented the most eventful era in San Francisco Giants baseball history, having covered the team since 2004 for th​ree major media outlets including the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune​. This is his 20th season as a baseball writer.
​Baggarly is the author of the bestselling book, A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants, and the newly published Giant Splash: Bondsian Blasts, World Series Parades and Other Thrilling Moments By the Bay. Baggarly’s other notable life accomplishments include running as the Bratwurst in the Milwaukee Sausage Race and becoming a three-time Jeopardy! champion.

What has Molina done this season to earn the cleanup spot? What has Schierholtz done to be permanently benched? What has Posey done to be moved down in the order? How do you go about trying to avoid double plays by putting Molina smack in the middle of the lineup? Why make such drastic changes after the team put up 6 yesterday?

Bochy must have been assured that this game will be rained -out, otherwise Rowand would be in there.

WAT

uhhhhhhh… wat?

Joe Martini

Your best hitter in the 7 spot?????

What was Boch drinking last night?

Wupuck

Everyone of you ripping Bochy for putting FAT Sandoval in 8th are BUFFOONS! Your actually making Sandoval look like a genius (And we all know he ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed)

Sandoval is LUCKY to still be in the lineup after his horrific performances recently. If not for Rowand and Molina, Sandoval would be the worst hitter in the everyday lineup.

14 GIDP is unforgivable, ESPECIALLY when so many of them are on the 1st pitch.

Mavo

Baggs, Is this lineup confirmed? I cannot believe Bochy would put Sandoval in the 8 hole??? And Molina at cleanup the way he is slumping and clogs up the bases??? INSANE if true!!

KJ

What more does Posey have to do to move up in the order? Oh, right, be over 30 years old. The only 2 players under 30 in this lineup are hitting 7th and 8th. And Bengie is cleanup again. Why am I not even surprised by this?

Lineup construction isn’t THAT important but man this seems totally out of whack. He can’t even give us a flawed old school lineup he has to move even further into crazyville.

I hope for the love of god they don’t score so there is Jo comforamtion bias baked into this for next time out.

WAT

What a terrible lineup!!! Why isn’t Pablo batting 9th??!?!?!?

Daniel

Let’s take a moment to marvel in the fact that Rowand isn’t playing though! Let’s hope Burrell and Torres play well to keep Rowand on the bench…where he belongs!

linds0r

Burrell starting without earning it by playing well off the bench. Why not? He’s a grizzled vet.

Rxmeister

I was waiting for Bochy’s mom to eventually appear on this blog to defend her son’s stupidity. Welcome aboard, Wupuck!! Imagine someone defending him for hitting Panda eighth and calling him fat when he has Molina hitting fourth!!

leon

This lineup is so terrible. Botchy must believe he won the lottery when Sabean picked up burrell. Yup, gotta have that veteran grit. There is a reason why he got released by the rays when they were on the hook for 8M or so. I wish we did the same with Renteria… sigh.

But really, Sandoval hitting 8th? why not just bench him? He’s probably played in 98% of the games this season. Its pretty obvious that Sandoval is trying to do too much at the plate while his teammates suck it up and what has Bengie done to warrant being placed in the 4th spot? Didn’t know being the slowest man in baseball gives you the right to clean up.

Bengie has 3 hits in his last 10 games with 0 walks. God why the f*** is botchy so f’in dumb and in love with people over the hill.

FireBochyNow

Sometime it just makes you wonder if Bochy is just playing a joke on everybody. Hey why not put Lincecum in the 8th spot again? I appreciate Rowand is getting a much needed “rest”, but a slumping Big Baby in the cleanup spot??

morineko

Could be worse, Wellemeyer could be hitting in the 3-hole….

Fat Panda

Bengie Molina vs. Paul Maholm: .357 average, 5-14 with 3 doubles.

Anybody bother checking stuff like that before spouting off?

No?

Gee, what a shock.

Bat Pablo 9th till he gets his act together. Or, he’s more than welcome to bat 3rd for Fresno.

DProfessor

Garbage. Fire this imbecile.

Andre

Fatpanda, you are a moron.

LincecumIsGod

holy crap! what kind of weed did bochy smoke when he wrote this lineup?! what has posey done to move down in the lineup? molina should be batting 8th considering the slump that he’s in. sure pablo’s struggling, but bat him 6th or something. btw fat panda, sandoval is batting .444 lifetime against maholm

Fat Panda

Wow. What a clever, typical, ignorant comment, Andre.

Keep up the good work.

Sansui-San’s Haiku Corner

Last year in the rains…
The Giants good times began
I LOVE rain delays!!

FIRE SABEAN

Worst player on the team bats cleanup. Smart. Leave it to Bochy to come up with that one.

Baggs – Do you ever ask the assistant coaches their thoughts on the line-up? Do you ever ask them if they have any input?

Ignatz

Fat Panda, I’d like to believe that past performance dictates future performance with Molina, but it would a rare instance this year. Looks like a rally killer in the 4 hole.

I could take this lineup if Molina was pushed to the back ala ’93’s proposal.

At least Rowand sits today and we can take step # 1 to see if Burrell’s got anything left.

Too bad for Wellemeyer, but expectations for a win on the road with him were not high..

FIRE SABEAN

It’s just typical Sabean coming up with broken down parts and Bochy throwing a dart at a board to determine the lineup (the cleanup spot dart always conveniently turns out to be Slowlina much to Bochy’s liking).

Fat Panda is Fat

Fat Panda,
14 at bats is a very small sample size, and 3 doubles? is that really that impressive? Enough to put Molina in the cleanup spot?

Fat Panda

Dear Fat Panda is Fat – ummm, when you’re looking at hitter vs pitcher stats, you don’t usually get huge sample sizes. Especially when said hitter and said pitcher have never even played in the same division as each other.

And is it impressive that 60% of Molina’s hits against this guy are for extra bases? No, I guess you’re right. It’s really not all that impressive to have 60% of your hits be for extra bases, because extra base hits are as common as boogers in your nose.

Angry Dan

Fat Panda:

So by your logic, Molina deserves to be the cleanup hitter tonight because he’s 5-14 career against Maholm, but Sandoval should be batting 8th because he’s 4-9 against Maholm? Notwithstanding small sample sizes in both cases, of course.

Thanks for playing. Please try again.

CURSE OF MULLIN

I like Bochy sending a message to Panda here–be more selective or you’re batting 7-8. What I really don’t get about this is Posey moving down. Sanchez and Posey are the only two professional table setter hitters in this lineup and they are both very very good at it. Posey should be hitting 3rd, not 7th. The key hitters in this lineup are Sanchez, Posey near the top and Uribe, Huff following them in cleanup roles. Throw Torres at the top and Sandoval somewhere later in the mix and hope he learns to blend his talent with a more professional approach. You’ve got a real offense brewing in there, but Posey and Sanchez are keys.

TGOh

“Everyone of you ripping Bochy for putting FAT Sandoval in 8th are BUFFOONS! Your actually making Sandoval look like a genius (And we all know he ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed)

Sandoval is LUCKY to still be in the lineup after his horrific performances recently. If not for Rowand and Molina, Sandoval would be the worst hitter in the everyday lineup.

14 GIDP is unforgivable, ESPECIALLY when so many of them are on the 1st pitch.”

Granted, not great, but still better than Molina, no matter what Molina’s numbers are against Maholm. Molina hasn’t been able to hit anything for a month, and clogs the basepaths in the rare times he actually gets on base. Do I need to link you to Molina’s line in the last two weeks? Hint: It’s .141/.164/.156

3rdKING

Wow. No way… Don’t worry Nate, youl show these fools when you get a new team. We as Giants fAns are sorry. Wow

Wupuck

Agreed Curse of Mullin on all your points except I wouldn’t bat Posey above 5th until he’s had about 100 ABs minimum.

Once he’s had that, he should be the #3 hitter, which will be good because then they can move FAT panda to 5th. Hackers should never bat 1st-3rd (which made Rowand batting leadoff maddening)

Nightcrawler

The ONLY thing I don’t like about this line-up is Molina hitting 4th and Posey hitting lower in the order. I know there are a ton of line-ups posted on here, but this makes the mist sense to me (with the people thy are scheduled to play today).

I think Sandoval needs a slap in the face to wake him up. Maybe hitting 7th or 8th will do thy to him. What team is better to have Burrell debut in the field? It’s not like the Pirates are a juggernaut of an offense. Hopefully he plays OK defense and is able to get enough ABs to be effective as the DH in the upcoming Interleague games.

Fat Panda

Angry Dan – as others have said and as I have said, Pablo needs to have a message sent to him. Where’s his motivation? His only competition at 3B is Uribe, and Uribe is locked in at SS until Renteria comes back.

At least Molina is watching Whiteside and Posey hit better than him and is feeling the heat that they are putting on him.

And seeing as how Molina doesn’t like hitting 4th, those of you who are viewing it as a “reward” are clueless. If anything, Bochy is issuing a challenge to him to not let the team down.

Angry Dan

Curse of Mullin:

The same thought crossed my mind when I saw Sandoval in the 8th spot. Bochy must be sending him a message to be more selective. Unfortunately, that message might as well be written in disappearing ink if one of the least selective hitters of them all is going to be batting cleanup.

Goddamnit

Wow. No way… Don’t worry Nate, youl show these fools when you get a new team. Course we will still suck. We as Giants fAns are sorry. Wow

VZ

If Torres continues to struggle would it be crazy to put Posey and Sanchez one-two or vice versa?

The Leftovers from Tom Cable’s Lunchbox

Bengie promised Bochy that he’s going deep today.

For breakfast, he had a stack of those pancakes layered with cheesecake. And whipped cream on top.

2gamewinstreak

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… Duh… Bochu is mayb the worst manager in MLB… He gets my vote…

The Leftovers from Tom Cable’s Lunchbox

Todd Wellemeyer is a cross between Curt Schilling and Don Knotts.

The Wisdom Cow

I agree with Nightcrawler, move Big Molasses from 4th to 8th with the others sliding one up and I’m good to go. Burrell only has to go 0-4 with no GIDPs to improve on Rowand.

Does anyone happen to know the record most different lineups in a season?

Angry Dan

Fat Panda:

I don’t disagree that a message should be sent to Sandoval, but like I have said many times before, the Giants can try all they want to try to send messages to Sandoval, but those messages of “Lose weight” and “Stop hacking so much” are extremely hypocritical and pointless when they keep rewarding Molina with millions of dollars and not telling him to do any of those things.

Even with sending today’s message to Sandoval, Bochy rewards Molina with the cleanup spot. Which message is he sending, exactly?

JJ Chise

Botchy has managed to put his two worst defensive outfielders out in the field at the same time, has a catcher playing first, a second baseman playing short, and a pitcher who pitches to put the ball in play on the mound. I have lots of confidence in Burrel and Huff running balls down in the gap, hope Torres got alot rest last night because he will be covering 3/4s of the outfield tonight. There is just no logic to this. Offensively this lineup has one of it’s worst hitters and double play machines batting cleanup, a DFA’ed free agent hitting 5th, and moves the team’s hottest hitter further down in the lineup to insure that he gets less at bats. Genius, pure Genius. Between Botch and Sabs this team is just killing me.

DProfessor

Why do I get a feeling that Baggerly was trying to soften us up for this miracle of a line-up by calling out Sandoval in last night’s blog?

Line-up: Garbage.

Manager: Imbecile.

SouthBaySteve

Glad Rowand is benched for today. And I can see dropping Panda temporarily to get a message across; too many DP’s. OK, agreed.

But then the whole thing is nullified by putting Mr. DP, Molina at, cleanup! WTF?? How does that help anything?

Good grief.

Let’s just hope he can stay out of DPs today. That’s a big “if” though…

Hasreorg

I like moving Panda down to get the pressure off. I hate Molina fourth. Posey three, then Huff Uribe Burell Molina Panda

Rxmeister

Fat Panda, you can’t ignore two bad years of suck by Molina because of 14 at bats. That reminds me of when Edgardo Alfonzo was here. He had all those great numbers accrued against pitchers because of his great years with the Mets, yet he always seemed to put up an 0 for 4 against them as a Giant. Molina is done, so numbers he may have gotten against Maholm when Bengie was a better player are irrelevant. Was Bengie hot when he got those hits? Was Maholm pitching poorly those days he faced Bengie? These small numbers tell us nothing.

WAT

I told myself that I would never do one of these, but all of the ones posted make no sense because they have Posey at 1B.

I’m gonna quote JJ Chise’s first sentence from above. Finest assessment of this lineup that does not include curse words I could possible imagine. Seriously, this should have been the second sentence of Baggs entry (Bochy for Botchy, but still . . . ).

“Botchy has managed to put his two worst defensive outfielders out in the field at the same time, has a catcher playing first, a second baseman playing short, and a pitcher who pitches to put the ball in play on the mound.”

CURSE OF MULLIN

Angry Dan,

Yeah, but Bochy is just trying to tweak Benjie’s pride/psyche to jump start him for short term rewards. With Panda, I think his approach is long term. It’s clear that Rowand and Molina have been dragging this offense down for over a month. I’d like to see more Schierholtz in right and some more Whiteside/Posey at C once Renteria returns.

Wupuck

Angry Dan – EXCEPT when your actually hitting into more Double plays then Molina is. Fat Sandoval deserves batting 8th. I hope Fat head Bochy leaves him there until he’s taken the few walks that he’s supposed to take while batting ahead of them power hitting pitchers…

Rowand needs to be sat on the bench for about a week as well.

The Leftovers from Tom Cable’s Lunchbox

Everyone knows that Bengie Molina is called “The Big Money”.

But many other Giants also have nicknames corresponding to songs by the Canadian rock band Rush (Bruce Bochy’s favorite band).

For instance, did you know that Matt Cain is “Tom Sawyer”.

Aubrey Huff is “Limelight”.

And Aaron Rowand is “Cygnus X-1”.

The Leftovers from Tom Cable’s Lunchbox

Let’s hope that Pat Burrell has some pudding in his lunchbox.

Wupuck

BTW, if im Nate Schierholtz, I’m walking into Sabeans office and give the ultimatum: “Play me or trade me!” He’s done EVERYTHING asked of him and he’s still the low man on the pole. It’s a joke.

Kristina

Oh my this lineup is horrible….Jesus Christ I didn’t think it’d be this bad. Is this just for laughs? Really? And all of the people who have lineups, can’t bat Bengie 8th because it would be impossible for the pitcher to sac bunt him over.

LOL GIANTS and this lineup

DProfessor

Bochy hates Nate Schierholtz.

What The #&*!

cant wait for bochy bobblehead day

jimrayhart

I totally dig Sandoval hitting 8th. Some how – some way the Giants need to grab his attention and let him know he needs to WORK at becoming a better hitter. He is just stubbornly swinging at first pitches now. What Ole Boch should also do is tell Panda to take the first two pitches of each at bat for the whole road trip as learning exercise. What’s the worst that could happen – he might have to swing at a crummy pitch after that? He already does that most at bats on the 1st pitch anyway. I’m down with Wupuck – Boch is dogging Nate and it doesn’t make sense.

Sansui-San’s n’er do well son

‘Es un chistoso’
says Bochy in espanol
In english a joke.

johnny

Molina shouldn’t even be in the league. period. The fact that he is batting 4th is a JOKE.

FIRE Bochy NOW!!!!

is this line up an April Fools joke? WTF.

Batting Stance Guy

Randy Winn picked up by the Cards.

Angry Dan

Yes, the Giants should be sending messages to Sandoval to lose weight and be more selective. Those messages are hypocritical though when they’re rewarding Molina for not doing either of those things.

14 GIDPs. Freakish. Joe Mauer has 12. It happens. The Giants have MUCH bigger problems than Sandoval in their offense right now.

The Wisdom Cow

Schulman quoted Bochy on today’s lineup, specifically Pablo, with, “If you look the numbers, he’s not as comfortable from the right side, . . . , [w]e’re trying to get him to be more selective and not hit pitchers’ pitches, . . . , [w]e’re having him hit in the 8-hole to get him a little more comfortable, and he’ll go back.”

Nothing on Big Molasses getting put into the 4 spot, though. He did get an rbi in his last game. He is also coming off two days rest, so I give him 3 innings before he’s tired again.

Greg

This kind of thing underscores the silliness of any talk about Bochy being a manager of the year. He is such a horrible match for this team, and his main weapon is hope. He (and Sabean) hope that Burrell can play, but there is absolutely no evidence. So, for the record, I am hoping, too. Apparently, that’s all we have, because no one is competent to, you know, actually fix a problem.

Get Pablo to take pitches? Out of the question … just move him down. Some teams have a thing called a take sign, but that’s way too involved for Bochy. Actually help coach Bowker or Nate or Velez or anyone else into fixing their problems? Way too much to ask, apparently.

And the Molina thing is just beyond all reason, as everyone outside the Giants organization knows..

Johnny Utah

when you don’t have superstars up & down the lineup, there will be times in a season where things need to be drastically juggled/changed to get points across to certain people. not many better times to do something like this than against a team like the pirates, especially when there’s all sorts of other things going on revolving around rain delays.

that being said, putting sandoval 8th is something i don’t have a problem with in & of itself. what i DO have a problem with is the logic behind this particular move (even if it’s a 1 day thing): bochy wants pablo to be more selective at the plate. ok. now explain to me why anyone in their right mind would give sandoval anything close to the plate when todd wellemeyer is batting behind him

long suffering giants fan

Burrell in LF and Huff in RF. Is Torres wearing spikes or track shoes. What a joke.

Has anyone watched Burrell in the last 2 years? He’s a bum who not only hasn’t hit but cannot play the OF. Why is Schierholtz glued to the bench? Does anyone in the Giants “brain trust” realize how well he hits lefties?

I have no problem with Dung Fu Panda batting 8th. He looks awful. But there is absolutely no reason why Posey should be batting 7th and Molina 4th.

This team is so poorly run its beyond pathetic. Its disastrous how young players are jerked around for the benefit of awful washed up veterans.

They should rename AT and T and call it “The Junkyard,” because this is a team made up of busted spare parts.

Molina is trash but I definitely like seeing Sandoval getting dropped in the lineup, it has taken far too long. Obviously still a horrible lineup, Molina is just as big a threat to hit into DP’s or have totally unproductive outs. Huff, hit another out of the park!!!

Expat

WAT’s lineup is the right one. I like Molina on the bench, Posey catching and Schierholtz actually playing. But Botchy and Sabean are driving off the cliff with the vets. This season is their swan song.

The Wisdom Cow

Ok, throwing this out there:

Molina to Seattle for Michael Saunders, a young guy who is having a Giant-esque young guy appearance for Seattle (.310 with decent pop in AAA, nothing in the majors). Maybe he pulls a Fred Lewis and puts it together for us, making the Mariner fans whine? Even if he bombs, the goal is to move Molina, so a lotto ticket on a young OF like Saunders sounds like a decent move to me, taking advantage of the M’s need for a catcher.

Shindigity

it’s official, molina and rowand are now having worse years than eugenio velez, going by ops. yes, i said the soft hitting velez who is now in the minor leagues because of his ineptitudes as a major league hitter. and one of the two is the clean up hitter for tonight’s game…. sigh

fruckingfrodgersduck

WOW, Bochy really must have lost his mind. or did he ever have one?

Shindigity

funny, i envision posey batting eighth soon after a hitless two game stretch.

The Wisdom Cow

Oh my darling!, aka Sargento, aka Market & Powell said this back on May 31st, 2010 at 6:18 pm, “Let’s have some class. We can disagree on any baseball issues. Once more the improper name calling is OFF LIMITS, PERIOD.”

Thanks a lot Botch! I just grounded my 9 year old for saying WTF when she saw this lineup.

Prey for rain.

bellevuemike

Whiteside leads the Giants in doubles, homers, and RBI’s per at bat, and he’s not in there.

Yet, Molina, who is 7 for his last 60 and has 1 homer and 4 RBI in his last 36 GAMES, is not only in the lineup, but hitting cleanup.

Whatever pictures Molina has of Bochy…..farm animals must be involved.

The Wisdom Cow

“Big Molasses” instead of “Big Money” is my choice. I never claimed to be classy or charged others to do so like you have, and I find the nickname for a public figure, baseball playing millionaire of his speed quite apt. A play on Big Money, it is well within rules of this site.

I resorted to personal attacks once with you which resulted in my e-mail being banned. I have abandoned such tactics but will continue to expose your hypocrisy and note your site violations so long as you continue to attack me personally.

I can only assume you have varied your e-mail with each of your own previous banishments corresponding to your various avatar name choices. You might be interested to know an IP address can be banned as well for repeat offenders the blog site’s policies.

The Wisdom Cow

Ooops, guess Sarg’s attacks were deleted as I typed. That was quick. I hope you were not banned for good, Sarg. When you talk baseball, you contribute.

hibcbcbc

Baggs,

Even YOU have to call out Bochy for putting Molina 4th.

You won’t, as we all know. As you say Baggs, “I am critical when it’s justified, and I also point out the positives when justified…by the way, how great a signing did Sabean make with Uribe!!?”

I think we can now officially say Benjie brings nothing to this roster.

1 RBI in 20 games and he gets moved to cleanup. And Baggs and Schulman have nary a critical word for it.

Baggs: At what point did you throw the towel in? You used to call this stuff out in 2 seconds.

hibcbcbc

Yeah, Bochy and Sabean CANNOT go call out Panda with the way they treat Molina and Rowand. Pablo for all his struggles is TWICE the player either of those guys…and they make on average 10 mil more a year.

It’s getting to the point where the only way to insulate Bochy is by having the beat writers take a pure “what’s best for the organization” stance in covering this team.

Shades of 93

Wellemeyer is AWESOME!

sjrichard

This is embarrassing

MelOtt511

Hopefully, the Wellemeyer experiment is over. The Reds will light him up this week if they don’t make the change. Seems a bit drastic to hit Pablo 8th. Obviously, as said above repeatedly, Molina in the 4 hole is just silly anymore. You double switch your cleanup hitter in the 4th? It is like the Giants management is bi-polar. Small steps, Bruce, small steps toward improvement. Sitting Rowand was ok but not if you were just resting him. Two weeks in Fresno getting his stance right. Pulling Bengie was ok if you started him by mistake (which could be said). DeRosa was interviewed after the game saying he is looking to use a “wider bat” so he can be in the lineup. Claims he might not hit as many homeruns as before. How many did he hit so far? Two? Pick the best 8 guys, regardless of their salary, and play them every day. Rest one or two every week.

Nuschler

Some people on here and you know who you are need to make some real friends so you dont have to use your computer to chat during the games.

Im not even making a snide joke. I sincerely get a little sad when I see the same avatars constantly popping up while the game is still going.

It makes the whole blog take on a forlorn, lonely feel.

And it also partially explains so much unsubstantiated bitterness.

Reality check—San Francisco Giants, 29-25, 2.5 games out of first in one of MLB’s better divisions, 2.5 games out of the Wild Card, 108 games to go.

I repeat, 108 games to go.

maybenextyear

Hey Baggs,
How long will you continue to support a manager who puts out a lineup like that? I mean really, how long?
You think we are bashing Bochy and Sabean too much??
Really?? LOOK AT THAT LINEUP and tell me they are competent.